Point-of-sale display cartons often are constructed from corrugated paperboard. Corrugated paperboard is fairly sturdy, being comprised of an adherent liner on one or both sides of a corrugated sheet of paperboard. Because it has substantial strength and load-bearing ability on the one hand and is inexpensive on the other hand, corrugated paperboard has proven to be a preferred material in disposable display cartons which are intended to be used for a short period and then discarded. For example, a display carton may be used for point-of-sale display of rolls of Christmas gift wrapping paper. After the Christmas season, there usually is no longer any use for the display carton. Rather than saving the display carton for the next Christman season, it may instead be simply discarded because of its construction from relatively low cost and easily disposable corrugated paperboard.
In order to maintain an orderly appearance of the merchandise contained in the display cartons, particularly as individual articles are removed from the display cartons from time to time, dividers or separators have been provided to maintain the articles of merchandise in rows, defined compartments, etc. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,213,559, a display carton constructed from paperboard stock material is divided into two display compartments by a partition panel. The partition panel is an integral part of a carton blank from which the divided display carton is constructed. As a result of the carton's construction, the partition panel is fixed in one position. Consequently, the partition panel cannot be adjusted along the width of the display carton to accommodate, for example, different sizes and/or numbers of articles in respective compartments defined by the partition panel.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,178,091, a dual purpose container, i.e., a shipping display and dispensing container, is shown. The container is constructed from paperboard and is intended to contain a plurality of like packages of goods which are superimposed in rows one upon another for both purposes of shipping and counter display. The rows at each level are divided by a vertically positioned cardboard separator which serves to keep the packages in each row from becoming displaced. The separator, however, does not provide independent support for the packages but rather is supported by the stacked packages. Thus, as the packages are removed, the separator may become dislodged resulting in disorder of the packages remaining in the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,389,133 also relates to the art of display carton construction from corrugated paperboard. This patent discloses an assembly for intercoupling pieces of corrugated material at right angles with respect to each other. Such assembly comprises a female connector and a male connector having respective female and male portions adapted to mate and interlock with each other. Each connector also includes another portion having a thickness dimension suitable for insertion between the liners of the respective corrugated panel in place of the corrugated material of such panel.